Completed Edition

1975 PGA Championship

PGA Championship August 7–August 10, 1975

Jack Nicklaus won the 1975 PGA Championship on Firestone’s South Course, finishing two strokes ahead of Bruce Crampton. A Saturday par at the sixteenth helped turn a precarious position into a third round of 67.²⁴

Results

Published results

Recorded score

Won byJack Nicklaus
276
Runner-upBruce Crampton
278

Venue

Primary venueSouth Course
Hosted by Firestone Country Club

The Par at Firestone’s Sixteenth

Crampton had shot 63 on Friday. His rounds of 71 and 63 totaled 134, four strokes better than Nicklaus’s 70 and 68. On Saturday their positions reversed: Nicklaus shot 67 and Crampton 75. The eight-stroke swing left Nicklaus four ahead, at 205 against 209.⁴

At the long par-five sixteenth, Nicklaus drove into water on the left. After a penalty drop, his six-iron finished in rough behind a tree. The PGA Tour’s account describes a nine-iron from 137 yards that cleared the tree, crossed the pond and stopped about thirty feet from the hole. Nicklaus holed the putt for par.²

A final 71 was enough. Nicklaus finished at 276, Crampton at 278 and Tom Weiskopf at 279. It was Nicklaus’s fourth PGA Championship. Crampton had also been runner-up to him at Canterbury in 1973.⁴¹³

Nearby editions

Sources and record notes

Archive note

The 1975 edition was won by Jack Nicklaus. Verified venue assignments are published in this record.

Record sources

2026 PGA Championship Media Guide
- 1975 PGA Championship · Championship identity
  The official Media Guide directly enumerates the 57th playing, champion, site, and its year-page date span. The recorded venue and champion preserve the official PGA Championship History entry’s published text.
  Verified 2026-08-20
Firestone Country Club: South Course championship history
- South Course
  The owner identifies the South Course as the host of three PGA Championships. The official PGA dated register enumerates those three as 1960, 1966 and 1975. The owner South Course page independently describes the 1960 PGA and Nicklaus 1975 victory. North and Fazio are separate layouts and receive no PGA venue assignment. This is course identity, not unchanged routing.
  Verified 2026-10-23
PGA official Championship result
- Jack Nicklaus
  The official detailed result and four published rounds corroborate the regulation total and relative score. Playoff status is checked against the Guide playoff table and detailed tied scores.
  Verified 2026-09-10
PGA official Championship finalist record
- Bruce Crampton
  Guide page 5 corroborates the finalist identity; the detailed official History supplies the explicit stroke total and relative score. No playoff flag is asserted.
  Verified 2026-10-23

Sources for this history

Jack Nicklaus: Playing Career TimelineNicklaus Companies
1971, 1973 and 1975 results and career milestones.
Consulted 2026-10-16
The Monster 16th at FirestonePGA Tour
June 27, 2016: Nicklaus’s penalty drop, recovery over a tree and par in the 1975 third round.
Consulted 2026-10-16
1973 PGA Championship LeaderboardPGA of America
Round-by-round scores and final totals.
Consulted 2026-10-16
1975 PGA Championship LeaderboardPGA of America
Round-by-round scores and final totals.
Consulted 2026-10-16